This application includes a microfiche appendix including four microfiche and 300 frames.
The invention relates to a control system which utilizes a neural network, and more particularly, to such a control system for a combine harvester.
Combine grain harvesters are complex machines and carry out a complex process that currently requires human supervisory control. The many adjustments built into a combine harvester provide versatility, but also make set-up and operation of the machine very difficult, even for experienced operators. For nearly 30 years, researchers have attempted to control sub-systems of the harvesting process with traditional forms of automatic controls. Examples include automatic feedrate controls, threshing cylinder speed with controls and cleaning fan controls. More recently, attempts have been made to model or control the harvesting process rule-based expert systems however, none of these proposed solutions have proven successful in the marketplace. One reason for this lack of success is that interactions exist between sub-systems. Effective optimization requires consideration of the entire machine or process rather than isolated sub-systems.